Sunday, September 23, 2012

August nights may indeed be hot, but as I observed when
closing the previous post, fall is on its way and with the arrival of September
we certainly have enjoyed more variety in temperate conditions. And yes, last
week, it rained, and heavily at times, but above 10,000 feet there was just a
dusting of snow that still could be seen through the weekend. However, we still
had one more outing in August and this time, it would be the last Monday of the
month – a first for us, as we had never before ventured to the track on days
other than Friday, Saturday and occasionally, Sunday. And the picture above is
of us at High Plains Raceway (HPR) getting ready to head onto the circuit even
as the heat began to make its presence felt.

Margo is working very hard on an event she manages for a non-profit
association. As the Chief Meetings Officer (within associations, they avoid the
title Chief Events Officer for very obvious reasons – the CEO role being
otherwise filled), Margo is responsible for pulling a program together and
ensuring that it is properly (and aggressively) promoted, and the weekend had
seen Margo working the phones pretty heavily, almost to the point of
exhaustion. Heading for the track, I already knew the symptoms but sure enough,
once we had set up base camp and unloaded the Pyalla Technologies “Track Days”
command center, Margo called it quits for the day. Whereas in all previous
outings Margo had run four sessions in the morning before handing the car over
to me for four (but usually only three) sessions in the afternoon, I would be
in the car all day.

Well, almost all previous outings we had split the day in half, but the very
last time out it had been all Margo. Readers may recall how I wasn’t able to be
on track the last time out with NASA Rocky Mountains (all my own doing, mind
you) and of how Margo had all day Friday and Saturday behind the wheel – some
nine or ten sessions, as I recall, over the two days we were trackside – so
letting me have as much time on track as I wanted was certainly a situation I
was going to take every opportunity to enjoy!

There’s now no question at all about our choice of Corvettes
when it comes to a track outing – the older 2003 C5 Z06 that has stood in our
garage for more than eight years has proved to be the hands down winner in our
books. The C5 Z06 runs so hard all day yet there’s been so little to worry
about. Margo had encountered some abnormalities with the clutch last time out,
and readers may recall how I had observed that I am going to have to do
something about the clutch fluids – it’s just so hot out on the track, and
being left without a gear is never a nice experience. Well our good friends at
the Corvette Spa changed out the fluid and upgraded to one with a tolerance for
much higher temperatures and that seems to have resolved the issue.

We still have a reoccurring issue with the transmission fluids overheating but
that will be something we address more cautiously, as it is a well-known issue
for C5 Z06s, but it’s also one that is easily resolved – just back off for a
couple of laps and wait for the warning light to go out! Will we add a
transmission cooler at some point or work on the ducting to ensure better
airflow – do the rear brakes really need their ducts? For the moment, this
issue is just a discussion point and with cooler temperatures on the way, I
suspect we will be fine with what we have. The picture above is of me adding
gas to the tank – there are times where I sure do think about the benefits of owning
a hybrid as we go through two tanks of gas for each of the days we are on track
for more than six sessions.

Fluids upgraded. Brake rotors and pads upgraded. And new tires installed at the
start of the year. Yes, it’s the usual, as the immediate priority is grip and
being able to stop. The C5 Z06 has more than adequate torque and horsepower for
circuits like HPR – yes, I am routinely passed by more experienced drivers in
cars more powerful than the red ‘Vette, but for the most part, I have watched
my lap times come down to where the magical 2 minute mark is in sight. I don’t
have a transponder on the car and I am not participating in any timed events,
as I am simply enjoying the High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) experience,
but others with me that are timing their cars or filming each lap have started
sharing with me heir times and when I am behind them the whole way, it’s pretty
easy to extrapolate.

While chatting with other participants I joined in a
conversation between a new, first-time attendee who had brought his new
Corvette ZR1 – essentially an earthbound rocket of the first order. This is one
very serious car and a contender for the fastest lap honors when it comes to
flying laps of the Nurburgring, only recently relinquishing the title to final
iteration of the Generation IV Viper ACR. But this time around the astute owner
brought an instructor with him (complete with the instructor’s C6 Z06), and
during the conversation, this instructor made a very pertinent observation.
“Gaining seat time and practicing is fine but only up to a point,” he remarked.
“Every morning, I sing in the shower but I am as flat as a tack and no matter
the practice, I don’t improve. The point with track time is that practice is
only of value once you come to recognize the correct way around the track and
for the casual, open-lap-day participant, it’s not always obvious whether they
even know what the proper line is!”

I took this all to heart and began to rethink my own approach to the track.
Cemented firmly in my mind is the mantra “late apex, safety” and yet, the more
I looked at my approach the more I came to realize that in apexing as late as I
was doing, I was unsettling the car with more extreme steering input. So, at the
top of the Prairie Corkscrew, I began turning in just a fraction sooner and
began playing with opening up the turn and low and behold my path through the
subsequent esses that led onto the main straight saw me carrying more than 80
mph past the start / finish line. Not a whole lot but when improvements now can
be measured in tenth of a second, this is a pretty good start. Now I am working
on smoothing my passage through turn 10 not to mention turn 6.

All day I was watching my tire pressures – remembering, left side, low! In
other words, with the predominance of right hand turns, pressures on the left
side of the Vette would always rise faster than the tires on the right side. So
yes, after many sessions at HPR, I finally have come up with a formula that ensures
that the bulk of laps are on tires where the pressures are equal and where the
tire profile produces a tire shape with the most “tire on the track” as
possible. But then, just as I needed to put in gas routinely, so too each
morning I needed to add more air – returning home after a full day on track I
found my pressures were down to less than 20 lbs! Then again, I did four 30
minute sessions before lunch and then another three 20 minute sessions after
lunch. As for being on track on a Monday, all I could think about were the
words of that well-known song, “It’s a Friday Kind of Monday” with the lines

“I used to waste my time on Monday
Monday was a waste of time
But everything was changed in one day”

Would I sign up for another Monday? For sure! Did I tell you there were far
less participants than we usually see on Fridays and did I mention that for one
30 minute session I didn’t see anyone else on track? Adding fuel and air seemed
to be a small price to pay and yes, the new brakes continue to deliver and the
old street tires continue to provide grip – you just gotta luv Mondays!

At some point Margo and I will take up golf. We have a
winter break planned for the period between Christmas and the New Year that
includes time in Palm Springs where we are going to give golf another shot –
there’s more we want to do than simply hang out at race tracks month after
month. And of course, living in Colorado simply rules out being on track for
five months of the year, so it’s off to warmer climates and after all the times
we just blew right on through Palm Springs on our way to Simi Valley, it seems
only appropriate that we take some time off to smell the flowers and yes, the
turf, that flourish around the links.

In the meantime, we have fall upon us so it should come as no surprise that we
elected to follow our time at the track with a weekend up in the high country –
this time in the district east of Aspen’s Independence Pass. It seems equally
appropriate that trips like this, to view the Aspen tress turning gold, should
be taken in a convertible. So with our Viper SRT/10 roadster freshly cleaned
and looking its best, we powered our way up the mountains and enjoyed the
scenery. We crossed Independence Pass from west to east only a few months ago
with Margo behind the wheel, but this time it would be my turn. And again, the
week had been tough on Margo and she simply “curled up in her corner” of the
car and relaxed.

For those not that familiar with Colorado, the drive to the lakes,
appropriately called Twin Lakes, takes us past Dillon with its secondary roads
leading to Breckenridge and Keystone ski fields, on to Copper Mountain where we
turn southwest and head to Leadville. All the while, the climb continues and
the trees begin to turn golden. You catch pretty much every shade of green as
the leaves die and the corresponding colorful quilts that cover the mountain’s
flanks are not to be missed should you be in Colorado at the right time. It’s
no mistake that Colorado greets arrivals on the interstates with the slogan
Colorful Colorado. And the picture below? It was one of the times that Margo
unwound herself from her seat and stretched her legs – and yes, the
postcard-like scene was only inches away from the main road.

With our last outing at HPR we may be even tempted to agree
with the songwriter that “everything was changed in one day” – the opportunity
to enjoy an open lapping day free from the traffic that so often shows up on
the Fridays was not just surprising but also a reminder of how much fun it can
be to go fast. We buy the cars we do today that are so well-engineered for
speed that it is a shame that the majority of drivers never get to experience
what they can do – and circuits are now being developed across the country.

Still, the Corvette C5 Z06 is proving itself the ideal car for track days. It’s
light, turns in well, and is easy (and comparatively cheaper) to maintain –
when the season finally winds down, apart from changing the fluids, all we have
done to the red ‘Vette is replace the brake rotors and pads. New tires had gone
on late last year and this was a part of routine maintenance, as after eight
years the original tires had long ago passed the point of providing the grip
the car deserved. Bridgestone tires have worked well on this car so we just
replaced our Michelins with them on the blue supercharged ‘Vette and when it
comes time to replace the tires on the track car – something we will need to
plan for early 2013 – then it’s hard to look past Bridgestone tires. Well,
perhaps we will take a peek at the Kumho Ecsta XS tires that other Corvette
drivers are seeing provide them with even greater value.

For the remainder of the year we have plans to return to the circuit at Pikes
Peak International Raceway – a “roval” circuit combining part of a NASCAR style
oval with an infield road course (of the same variety as the one we have
experienced at Fontana, California, but not as long) – as well as one final
foray into southern California to close out the year at Buttonwillow.There may be one more opportunity to spend
time on the HPR circuit, but this is still very much a day-to-day proposition
and if it means we will be out of tires before Buttonwillow and we will pass on
any further outings. But will it be a Friday outing should we return? Or a Saturday?
All I now know is that if there’s any more Monday sessions on offer it might
prove real tempting and just what we need to leave up the weekends for the
actives we really want to pursue. After all, what else can you do on Mondays!